Go Naked With Your Bin: How to Live Without Plastic Bin Liners!

Everyone’s asking, ‘what will I use for bin liners now that plastic bags are banned?’. But, go naked with your bin and you don’t have to worry! Changing household bin liner behaviours is an exciting green-leap forward resulting from these laws.

Fifty years ago we did not use plastic bags for our bins, but since they became readily available we grew attached to using tie-up bags to cocoon away unpleasant scraps.

Environmentally, plastic rubbish bin bags were never a good solution because they do not break down well in landfill, plus once in landfill the bags and their contents produce greenhouse gases and worsen global warming.

So, by changing our bin liner behaviour and “going naked” without any liner at all, we will not only save the waste and cost of plastic liners, but we will also create a more healthy environment. Double win!

Speaking with customers in the Biome stores, many people say that their wheelie bin is already much emptier these days than it used to be with only a couple of plastic bags of rubbish each week. That is because they are reducing the waste coming into their home to start with, and then separating any waste into compost and recycling, leaving only a small amount to be bagged.

How to handle your rubbish without needing bin liners

Necessity is the mother of invention, so we suggest starting by stopping using a bin liner, even just for a few days to see what happens! It will force you to come up with solutions. Many people have commented on our social media posts that they already go naked and “it’s so easy”!

1. Take a look at what rubbish you currently bag

Most people find that the majority of waste that requires bagging is wet food, cooking fat, sanitary items, and soiled packaging. The rest of your rubbish is generally plastic or paper packaging.

As you’ll learn in the next steps, almost all this waste can be dealt with in other ways.

2. Minimise food waste and re-use

There are many resources on the web to give you ideas on how to shop, cook, and store food in order to reduce food waste. For example, a great way to stop throwing away the ends and peelings of vegetables is to keep them in the freezer then use to make a vegetable stock.

Any packaging or plastic that you do use, find ways to use it again and again.

3. Set up a home compost or other system for compostable scraps

Because food scraps are the biggest contributor to rubbish, composting your food waste is the most important step you can take. This could be one, or a combination of: worm farm, compost heap, or Bokashi bin in the kitchen. Each has merits, but Bokashi in particular solves many problems.

If you live in an apartment, or do not have a garden, you could give your compostables to a friend who does, or a community garden or local composting service. A Bokashi bin is a great option to collect your scraps.

Many councils across Australia now have green waste bins that take household food scraps for industrial scale composting. These schemes should be in place much more widely in Australia by now, so if your council does not offer this yet please send them an email asking that they do!

Green bins are widespread in countries such as Canada, USA and Germany. In San Francisco, it is in fact mandatory to put food waste in a compost bin!

Worm Habitat Bin makes composting food scraps easy

4. Separate your “waste” straight away, right in the kitchen

Setting up specific, easy to access places to put each type of waste will greatly increase the amount you allocate. You will need various receptacles for:

Compost. Food scraps and compostable items such as paper and tea bags. If you have a Bokashi system it will take your meat and dairy scraps also.

Special recyclables. Skin and hair care packaging, toothbrushes, batteries, light bulbs, e waste, etc. You will need to find venues that will accept these for recycling. For example, Biome stores accept skin care and toothpaste packaging and sends to TerraCycle as a service for our customers. See what we can recycle for you at Biome. Contact your local council to find out what they will accept at ‘refuse stations’ (no longer called ‘rubbish dumps’!).

Soft plastics. If you live within reach of a major supermarket, most now accept soft plastics. Alternatively you can send them yourself to RedCycle. I shove my soft plastics into one plastic bag under the sink and then take it to the supermarket periodically.

Landfill scraps. This is the remnants of food that can not be composted, unrecyclable packaging and other tricky items. Read on to step 5!

Here’s a great example of bin system by @realitybites.zerowastefood on Instagram L-R: Recycling, compost, and landfill rubbish lined with paper.

Another good idea from @realitybites.zerowastefood for gathering small bits that are too small to recycle on their own. Always check first with your council on their rules. To place in recycling: put all plastic bits in a plastic bottle with lid on; scrunch all the foil into one ball; put all paper in one paper bag; take batteries to the council refuse station.

5. How to store anything remaining without plastic bags

After separating all the above waste, the only issue you have left is what to do with the potentially smelly, wet waste and some special items until bin collection day (note that if you are using a Bokashi bin you will have very little!). Here are some great solutions:

Firstly, drain off any excess liquid down the sink (but not oil or fat*), as bacteria that causes smells breeds in a wet environment.

Freeze scraps in a container and only tip them in to your wheelie bin the night before rubbish collection.

Or, place scraps in a bench top container that “breathes” and then tip into your wheelie bin every few days. Wet food scraps left in an air-tight container start to putrefy quickly. For example, the Oggi Stainless Steel counter top composting pail has a charcoal odour filter and allows air to flow through, meaning less odour, flies and mess.

Wash out container after emptying it into your wheelie bin. Sprinkle baking soda in the bottom to remove odours and deter insects, and use a vinegar trap for fruit flies.

If needed, you could wrap scraps in newspaper, re-used food packaging bags, or Biobags (see below), but ideally one of the above methods would be less impactful.

*Tricky ones

Oil and fat: pour into empty milk, juice or any ‘liquid paperboard’ carton. When full and solidified, place in your bin the night before collection. In our house it takes months to fill.

Menstrual and incontinence items, and tissues used with contagious illnesses: place into any used plastic packaging bag or compostable bag (see below) and place in wheelie bin. Also, read more here on how to have a zero waste period to reduce disposable items. Tissues only used for tears or allergy sniffles can be composted.

Cat litter and dog poo: ideally use natural litter that can be placed in compost, green bin, or Ensopet waste composter. If you do not have access to compost, check if you can place litter directly into your wheelie bin, or use compostable Biobags.

Our understanding is that while some councils encourage you to put rubbish in bags in your wheelie bin, it is not unlawful. However, when going naked with your bin, you need to be responsible about not placing unbagged plastic things that may fly away.

Every few weeks, hose out your wheelie bin on the lawn or garden, and rinse with a vinegar solution to eliminate any insects.

What to use if you do still need to bag some waste or use a bin liner?

Save and re-use some plastic bags you received as packaging, such as the bags from sliced bread, breakfast cereal, potato chips, toilet paper and frozen vegetables; or cardboard boxes such as the cereal boxes or milk containers.

We hope you enjoy the journey of achieving a naked bin! We would love to hear from you if there is something in your rubbish bin that can not be dealt with using these steps? Please ask in the comments below, and we’ll try to find a solution for you!

43 Responses to Go Naked With Your Bin: How to Live Without Plastic Bin Liners!

Dianne

June 20, 2018 at 8:38 pm

Hello
I’m not sure how to package up the cat litter. Sorry for the unfortunate level of detail this requires, but here goes! I use one plastic shopping bag per week. Each day I take out the cat poo from his tray and place it in the bag. On bin night I tip all the littler into the bag, on top of the collected poo; tie it up and out to the bin it goes.
How can I hygenically store the poo til bin night and then have something large enough to tip the week’s worth of used litter into? As you can imagine, wrangling all the litter into some origamied newspaper is bound to go pear shaped!
Help!
Dianne

Hi Dianne! We currently use the recycled paper pellet cat litter which is suitable to be flushed down the toilet. We don’t use the crystals as they are not environmentally friendly. We use a “poop” scooper and try to shake off as much of the pellets as possible so that only the bits stuck to the poop will be flushed. For refreshing the trays once a week we simply tip the litter straight into our wheelie bin (no bagging) just before putting the bin out, that way it won’t be smelling for days and without bagging it, it will break down quicker in landfill. If the bin smells after emptying it gets a quick clean out. Obviously the flushing method does waste water so we are looking at getting one of those pet poo composting systems as soon as we can afford one.

Hi Lesley. Yes it can. Lime and dirt is a good idea, as is sprinkling in some Bokashi. Bokashi microbes ‘ferment’ the waste and kill pathogens so it is ideal for helping pet waste to break down quickly and safely.

Missa

June 24, 2018 at 1:20 pm

We are not allowed to flush cat waste in the toilet

Anna

June 24, 2018 at 7:14 am

A friend of mine had a large dog. She ‘trained’ her worm farm to digest the poo. It took a while. But the worms finally got the message that poo was the only thing on their menu! It worked very well for years.

Hi Team Biome 🙂 Could you please address the very dangerous issue of toxoplasmosis eggs, which are excreted in feline faeces? The EnsoPet product very vaguely refers to “remediating any pathogens”, but as toxoplasmosis can only be killed at temperatures of 73C or more (and can stay alive in soil for 18 months), my concern is that attempting to compost cat faeces is a serious health risk. Thanks in advance for your insight!

i would just like to say DO NOT flush the paper pellet litter down the toilet. i use it too and had a google around to see if this was able to be done. it’s not made up of the same fibres as toilet paper and will likely eventually clog up your plumbing system and will be unpleasant and costly to fix. hope that helps!

Hi Dianne. It sounds as though you have a good system to at least only use one plastic bag per week. Your other options depend on whether you have access to compost, green bin, or a garden? Using a natural litter made from wood pellets such as Oz-Pet pellets, means you can compost the litter. You can bury the droppings using our EnsoPet Bokashi composter. If you need to use a bag, you can try used packaging such as sliced bread bags, or if you have to buy them, there are compostable Biobags that are at least not made of petrochemicals.

Hi Margaret. I’m sorry for overlooking those items. I have updated the post to incorporate them now. You could save plastic bags from food packaging that you buy such as breakfast cereal, sliced bread, frozen vegetables and use these for placing the items in. You could also use compostable plastic Bio bags made from corn starch. We also have here suggestions for reusable cloth pads and a menstrual cup that would also assist with reducing the waste https://www.biome.com.au/blog/how-to-have-a-zero-waste-period/

As a household of 3 women we always have ordinary brown paper bags stored in the bathroom for hygiene products. Just place in the bag and put into a small bin with a lid
in the bathroom and empty straight into the larger wheelie bin when you need to. We have never had an issue with unpleasant odours.

Thanks for this post and I can say that I already have a worm farm, recycle paper and plastics wherever possible etc so I do only have one, maybe two small bags in my kerbside bin each week. But I would still really like a solution for an environmental bin liner. I would love it if someone made recycled paper bag bin liners, not dissimilar to the grocery bags in the States. If the bags were sturdy and a reasonable thickness they could handle getting a little damp if something wet was put in the bin. I think they could be made in all size and sold as an alternative to plastic bin liners. I am reasonably ‘green’ but I don’t want to have a naked garbage bin and I think there are many others like me.

Thank you for such all the good advices! I am wondering if I don’t do any gardening, will having a compose bin any use to me? And how exactly can I send bottles of beauty products to you? I have tried contact Tara recycle myself before but never gotten any answers!

Hi Kay.
Even though you do not do any gardening, do you have a garden where you can tip out the compost? If so, it is still great to compost the scraps with a worm bin or a bokashi and then bury/tip onto a garden bed. It is better for the environment and ultimately the ground in your area will become more rich.

You can post the beauty products to us at
Biome
51 Douglas Street
MILTON QLD 4064

Hi Selina. Great question thank you. We have researched and the advice is that tissues that have been used with flu or any contagious illness should not be put in compost or recycling. You can put tissues used for tears and allergies. That said, the Bokashi system will deal with tissues with germs – the Bokashi fermentation process produces an acidic environment and is known to kill harmful pathogens which may survive in other composting processes.

Hi Deb. Yes a compostable bag is the best alternative if you would like to use a bag. They are made from plants (primarily corn starch) not petrochemicals, so they do not use up non-renewal resources and are less polluting in their production. Once they are sent to landfill, while they do decompose more than petrol plastic they do generate methane as any food scraps do.

I appreciate the sentiment behind this article, and I love waste avoidance tips, but as someone working in the waste industry it has some incorrect information. It is organic waste in landfill that creates greenhouse gas, so it is preferable to not landfill newspaper or compostable bags, which should be recycled or composted (this is what they are meant for). Landfills essentially entomb waste. It is not meant necessarily to break down, certainly can’t compost, and the landfill environment won’t improve by adding environmentally friendly packaging … this is why waste avoidance is so important. I do also have concerns about people not bagging small flyaway pieces of waste including plastic if they are not at a very low waste stage yet, agree with your last points about reusing bread bags etc, but again, preferably not cardboard. The biggest risk for losing waste is when the bin is tipped into the truck, can be troublesome on a windy day! That being said I very much appreciate all following the waste avoidance road, it is beneficial to everyone.

Hi Nicky. We greatly appreciate your input to help us get our information right for everyone! We talk a lot in our posts about avoidance of waste in the first place, so we were trying to take away that initial ‘hurdle’ on this occasion and focus on the message of how to deal with any waste generated. However, we do agree that avoidance is the actually the easiest way to deal with the waste!

I am taking from your comments, that it is not a good solution to use newspaper, paper, or cardboard of any form to wrap rubbish to send to landfill. That is a great perspective. Regarding the compostable bags, I agree about composting them – however, if someone is going to use a plastic bag of some kind, it is better at least that it is a bag made from plants not petrochemicals, as it is far better for the environment in the extraction and production phase of the product.

I would love to hear from you any ideas on dealing with those ‘tricky items’ that do most likely involve some form of bagging such as sanitary items, tissues with flu germs, cat litter?

Can the small items of plastic be put inside another plastic receptacle as we have suggested? Or are you suggesting that they should be bagged? If so, wouldn’t a bag made from plants be preferable to a bag made from petrochemicals?

Thank you so much for taking the time to help us better inform our community.

Hi again, I know you guys are all about avoidance which is why I love your business!
I would agree with your comments on reusing some bags such as cereal bags, bread bags, pet food bags etc if you need something for small or problem waste items. I think you also mentioned washable sanitary items, which I think are a great solution. Going back to classic hankies is possible, but I know not always easy or preferred!
Agree bags made from plants are better than petrochemicals in terms of life cycle, I guess I am assuming the majority of people still have those small scale items like bread bags, cereal bags etc and I think it is better to reuse these for disposal rather than sourcing a new compostable bag, as there is no landfill benefit from this. I only think a bag is necessary if you have small mixed items to dispose of. Thanks for being so open for ongoing discussion, this area is developing fast at the moment …

We don’t buy newspapers and thus it has never occurred to me to use it for a bin liner! excellent idea for our kitchen waste bin. Our council has implemented green waste bins that take food waste as well as garden waste, although I don’t believe (from word of mouth) that many people are following it. And, unfortunately, we had A LOT of issues with maggots in our kitchen and our green wheelie bin during the summer months, I was ready to give up! Truly disgusting. It would be ideal to freeze meat scraps (and I found they really liked egg shells!) but we don’t have enough freezer space.

Hi Loz. You might find a Bokashi bin a great solution for you to store the food scraps (including meat and egg shells) before putting them in to the council green bin. Bokashi is an effective microorganism that ferments the scraps and stops them from putrifying. The scraps can then be buried in your garden or added to your compost heap – or in your case sent to the green bin. You can keep the Bokashi bin under your sink as it does not smell. You can read more about Bokashi here https://www.biome.com.au/bokashi/105-bokashi-compost-bin.html

I can’t help thinking something essential is being missed. I assume the objective is to persuade the general population to replace their use of plastic in the home. You’re not going to achieve that by marketing replacement single bags for $20 each. It’s far too expensive and feels like a niche market that’s going to make some money for someone, but entirely fail in its published aims.

Hi Paul – Are you referring to reusable shopping bags for $20 each or bin liners? We are no trying to market a product, we are trying to educate people about how they can manage household waste without a bin liner and not have to buy anything. We are genuine in trying to provide solutions to environmental challenges.

Some good tips here.
One thing that’s not compostable is tea bags which have micro plastic in them, would not compost them, maybe empty the tea out then through the bag out, better yet loose leaf tea. You can find information about the plastic on the internet.

I’ve been challenged by this year’s World Day of Prayer (country host was Suriname) to be much more conscious of how to minimise waste, manage waste responsibly, and find ways of recycling or composting as much as possible. Our local council provides a 60% subsidy on home composting solutions, so I have taken up that offer and received a Bokashi bin which seems to be incredibly versatile in handling food waste and things such as tissues.
Certain items were presenting more of a challenge; bones, for instance (certainly large bones) can’t be Bokashied, so I’ll be using bones (with extra carcasses if needed) to make chicken stock/broth. The bones will soften over the 2 or so days of slow cooking, and they can then be added to the Bokashi bin (as I understand it).
Mouldy or rotten food is apparently not suitable for the Bokashi bin, so an outdoor compost is probably a good idea. (Next on the list to get.)
Ecobin have “portable waste bags” that are like bins made out of rPET fabric; I think the “mixed recyclables” bag is a wonderful idea, but honestly don’t see the point of the “landfill only” bag as I have a bin for that! Besides, I am really uncomfortable with the idea of throwing cling wrap, plastic bags, packing straps, sticky tape, glazed wrappers, polystyrene, drinking glass ware, and broken crockery, all into landfill. I’m collecting all soft plastics to bring to our nearest Redcycle bin, and have found a waste recycling station only 30 minutes away which will accept polystyrene (Yes!), oil (motors and grease), printer cartridges, tyres, plastic strapping, gas bottles, batteries (both single use and rechargeable), electrical cables, fluorescents, and more. I’m more than happy to drive over every month or so with the inevitable pile.
However, I would love to see Australian-made rPET fabric becoming available from sellers within Australia. I’ve gone crazy trying to find a supplier of rPET fabric (re-using plastic by turning it into fabric), and have ended up in contact with a supplier in China who is happy to freight 20-30 metres of the fabric to me. I plan on making my own “portable waste bags” colour-coded to represent “Soft Plastics”, “Bokashiables”, “Outside Compostables”, “Hard Plastics & Mixed Recyclables”, “Batteries”, “Polystyrenes”, “Beauty Packaging”, “Oral Products”, etc. Some of these can be dropped off to various drop-off centres partnering with TerraCycle; some I’ll drop off to the Waste Recycling Station”, and so on.
I truly believe that effective sorting is one of the key elements to getting on top of the recycling challenge.
I’m also planning on making bin liners to size from the rPET fabric. It’s waterproof, easy to wash (quick wipe), reusable for years, and at its end of life can be recycled. If I make them with handles, they’ll be every bit as easy to use as traditional bin liners, with the bonus that they are emptied into the respective bin or compost, given a quick wipe, and brought back inside to line waste baskets again. They’ll look attractive, too.
I still haven’t found a way to responsibly deal with sticky tape, and I honestly despair at receiving packages so thoroughly taped that Noah’s flood couldn’t soak through to the cardboard. However, from what Brad Gray (Planet Ark) has said, this sort of cardboard can be placed into the mixed recycling bin, as during the pulping process, the tape will be filtered out by screens. I hope more companies look towards using biodegradable tape, or packaging string made from jute.
No more straws, or plastic cutlery. I’ve bought some glass straws (including some extra long 30cm ones for my SodaStream bottles), and biodegradable disposable cutlery made from palm leaves, bamboo, or wood.
Having just become aware of Hannah pads, I think this is a wonderful idea. Our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers, our earliest female ancestors would be fascinated to know that their everyday habits were eco-friendly before there was ever such a concept… and unlike them, we’ll be a major step ahead with the pads/liners being leak-proof.
I’m willing to go back to using traditional handkerchiefs rather than tissues. We’ve become used to being a wasteful society, and in many respects we don’t even realise just how much thoughtless waste we are producing… Some googling turned up “handkybooks” which sounds like an interesting idea, and of course there are Australian-made handkerchiefs made from organic cotton.
I think we have great scope in Australia for becoming much more waste-managing. It will take the efforts of both individuals and corporations, with technology-driven change and habit-driven change. I’m so glad that we’ve made a start.

As you said, most of us have very little waste in our black garbage bins any more. I only ever have a small bin in the kitchen…just big enough for a plastic garbage bag…and this is what I use for non recyclable/non compostable waste.

I Usually only have two per 7days because I have so little waste these days. This is the only plastic which goes into my bin. All the rest of the soft/scrunchable plastic goes back to the supermarkets

I have three cats and use the OZ-Pet litter system.
The pellets are extruded wood pulp waste- organic and compostable. I flush the solid waste down the loo, the pellets break down into sawdust as they get wet, then I sprinkle that around the garden. I haven’t killed any plants yet and have been using this system for years.
And, the added bonus is that there is NO nasty cat urine smell that lingers around the house!